John 12 - Jon Courson's Application Commentary

Jesus taught us that whenever two or three gather in His name, He would be in the midst of them (Matthew 18:20). And here, in this house in Bethany, we see the components of the church in the three who opened their house to Him as we observe Martha working, Lazarus witnessing, and Mary worshiping.

“Martha, you’re troubled by many things,” Jesus had said. “One thing is needful, but you’re striving and stressing and troubled about many things” (see Luke 10:41). The same is true of us. How often we are so busy, but not very blessed. People come to simply spend time with us, but we make fancy desserts, vacuum the carpets, wash the windows, mow the lawn, sweep the walks-and by the time they get there, we have a headache and want them to leave. “One thing I desired, Martha,” said Jesus, “sitting at My feet, Mary has chosen better.”

Martha evidently learned this lesson, because now, several months later, the scene is repeated again. Martha is still working-only this time it’s not for one guest, but for seventeen: Jesus, His disciples, Simon (mentioned in Luke’s account), Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. Martha’s still in the kitchen-but this time she’s not complaining. Good for her.

Certain of you are workers by nature, Martha-like in your mind-set. That’s good, as long as you’re not complaining and striving, feeling obligated, burned-out, or hassled. If you can work joyfully as unto the Lord, great! The body of Christ desperately needs Marthas. I thank the Lord for the Marthas who serve joyfully, helping people practically. If such is your role, I commend you.

I like what Samuel Chadwick, the classic Methodist evangelist and educator of the 1900s, said: “If God is at work week by week raising men from the dead, there will always be people coming to see how it is done. You cannot find an empty church that has conversion as its leading feature. Do you want to know how to fill empty chapels? Here is the answer: Get your Lazarus.”

I’m convinced that Applegate Christian Fellowship sees the amphitheatre packed to overflowing because a lot of folks go to see people being baptized Sunday after Sunday. It intrigues, interests, stimulates, and draws. And not only does conversion fill empty churches-it fills empty lives. If you are finding your own joy diminishing, let me ask you this question: How long has it been since you’ve shared with an unbeliever? You see, saved sinners not only cause joy in heaven (Luke 15:10), but they bring about feasting and merriment in our own hearts as well (Luke 15:23,24) . Living your life before the unbeliever in such a way that he’ll be curious about the gospel is the key not only to filling empty churches, but also to filling empty Christians. Find Lazarus. Be Lazarus. Evangelize.

When David danced before the Lord with all his might, stripped down to his undergarments, his wife mocked him (2 Samuel 6:20). David went on to continue worshiping the Lord all the days of his life. But Michal “had no child unto the day of her death” (2 Samuel 6:23). The same is still true. Those who critique or find fault with worship will experience barrenness, dryness, and a lack of productivity. Ask Michal. Ask Judas. Then ask Mary about worshiping.…

The ointment she poured out upon Jesus was not used several days earlier on her brother Lazarus possibly because she was saving it for Jesus’ burial. Yet she did not use it at His burial either, for it was Mary Magdalene who went to anoint His body with perfume and spice on Easter morning-not Mary of Bethany. Nor was Mary of Bethany at the foot of the Cross. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was there-but not Mary of Bethany. Why did Mary of Bethany seemingly have no part in the death and burial of her Lord? Because Mary evidently understood something no one else comprehended. Although Jesus had spoken directly to His disciples, saying, “I’m going to die, be buried, and rise again after three days,” they didn’t get it. Mary is the only one who understood what was going to happen. She alone saw the big picture. She alone understood there was no need to save the ointment for Jesus’ burial-because He wasn’t going to stay buried. There was no need to go with the other Marys to the Cross-because that wouldn’t be the end of the story.

How did Mary have such profound insight? I suggest it was because she was at His feet constantly, expressively, and expectantly. Be a worshiper in your morning devotions and in your evening watches. Be a worshiper in church on Sundays and Wednesdays. Be a worshiper and watch and see what will happen, for, like Mary, you’ll hear the Lord’s heart and know things others don’t.

I find it interesting that the first recorded utterance of Judas the traitor is, “Why?”

“Leave her alone,” said Jesus to Judas. “Mary saved this ointment for My burial. But she’s giving it to Me now.”

In other words, Jesus says, “You’ll always have opportunity for activity, but don’t miss these precious moments of intimacy.”

“Not only must we put Jesus to death-but we also must deal with Lazarus,” concluded the Jewish leaders, “because he’s a testimony of Jesus’ power.” They would have to keep going, however, for they would have to not only silence Jesus, Lazarus, and the disciples-but all of the believers. In the days of the early church, six million Christians were killed in an effort to stamp out Christianity. The more Christians killed, however, the stronger the church became.

In March 1990, Christianity Today reported that between the years 1900 and 1990, an average of three hundred thousand believers have been martyred every year. Yet where the church is persecuted, the church is powerful. Truly, the blood of the saints is the seed of the church.

It was Sunday, the tenth day of Nisan-by our calendar, the sixth day of April-four days before the Feast of the Passover. According to the Book of Exodus, it was the day when every family celebrating Passover would choose a lamb to sacrifice. Then priests would watch it closely from the tenth to the fourteenth day of Nisan in order to ensure it was in the best of health and was without flaw or blemish. Picture in your mind’s eye tens of thousands of lambs being brought into the holy city. And in the midst of all the choosing, inspecting, and bleating, the Lamb of God entered the city of Jerusalem.

The Lamb of God came to Jerusalem on the tenth day of Nisan-the very day prophesied hundreds of years previously. “Know this,” Daniel was told, “from the going forth of the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the prince, shall be sixty-nine heptads, sixty-nine seven-year-units, or four hundred eighty-three years.” Four hundred eighty-three years from March 14, 445 B.C.-the day Artaxerxes gave the Jews the charge to rebuild Jerusalem-was April 6, A.D. 32. No wonder Jesus cried, “Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem” (Matthew 23:37), for they should have known the day of His coming.

The waving of palm branches and crying of Hosanna was a tradition that began two hundred years earlier, following the reign of a bloodthirsty Syrian king named Antiochus Epiphanes. A man so blasphemous that he slaughtered a pig in the Holy of Holies and made the priests drink its blood, Epiphanes bludgeoned the Jews into submission. After several years of this, however, a man named Judas Maccabee, whose name meant “hammer,” and his brothers decided to nail Antiochus Epiphanes by launching a guerrilla war against him. Approximately nine years later, when Maccabee and his band of renegades miraculously overcame the Assyrian army and drove Epiphanes from Jerusalem, the people spontaneously celebrated by waving palm branches. And from that time on, the back of Jewish coinage depicted a palm branch as a symbol of deliverance from oppression.

Here in John’s account, two hundred years after Maccabee, the Jews find themselves oppressed again, not by the Syrians, but by the Romans. Consequently, what the people were essentially saying when they cried Hosanna and waved palm branches as Jesus rode into Jerusalem, was, “Be Judas Maccabee. Deliver us from the Romans.” But when they realized Jesus had a different agenda than a political one, a different agenda than a national one, a different agenda than a material one-their cry changed from “Hosanna” to “Crucify him.”

The same is still true. Christians individually and churches corporately mobilize politically for this cause or for that personality; to change our government or to change our economy. But very few are interested in a Cross that speaks of dying to self. An arresting picture of Calvary depicts three empty crosses on Golgotha, with a donkey in the background, chewing on a palm frond. You see, it’s one thing to shout at a parade, and something else altogether to stand at the foot of the Cross.

According to rabbinical theory, when Messiah came, He would ride into Jerusalem on a white horse. If, however, Israel was not ready for Messiah, He would ride in on a donkey. And here’s Jesus riding on a donkey-not to confirm rabbinical speculation, but to fulfill prophetic indication made hundreds of years earlier when Zechariah said the King would come riding on a donkey (9:9).

Jesus riding in to Jerusalem on a donkey, the people waving palm branches and shouting Hosanna meant nothing to the disciples until Jesus was glorified. Are the Scriptures confusing to you? Do they make no sense? Keep reading; keep studying-for as Jesus is glorified in your life, you will have a greater and greater understanding of Scripture. The problem is, we want understanding, but we don’t want to glorify the Lord by obeying Him.

We want to understand esoteric insights; we want to grasp the meaning of this verse, or that chapter-but it is only when we glorify the Lord in obedience that we will understand what’s being said in any given passage. The disciples didn’t understand initially. But when Jesus was glorified, they understood eventually.

The Pharisees felt threatened needlessly-for this very crowd that seemed ready to leave everything to follow Jesus would soon desert Him.

At Jesus’ birth, Gentiles came from the East to worship Jesus (Matthew 2:1,2) . Here, prior to His death, Gentiles came from the West for the same reason.

Perhaps it was because he knew Jesus had come to minister to the lost sheep of Israel and was unsure whether He would receive these Gentiles that Philip went to Andrew.

Andrew, in turn, did what he always did (John 1:41; 6:8, 9). He brought Philip to Jesus.

In answering the Greeks, Jesus didn’t allude to Old Testament prophecy as He did on other occasions. Instead, He talked about a grain of wheat falling into the ground. Why? Because these Greeks would be far more familiar with science, nature, and philosophy than with Old Testament prophecy. Therefore, Jesus gave Andrew and Philip an analogy the Greeks would understand readily when He said, “You can’t see the potential of a grain of wheat until it dies. So, too, the only way you can see Me is in light of My death, burial, and resurrection.”

Gang, unless you see Jesus in light of what He did at Calvary, you’ll miss Him. Truly, no matter to whom you’re talking or what you’re facing, the answer for everyone is always found at the foot of the Cross. I believe that with all of my heart.

“If the Lord loves me, why did my husband leave me?” says the brokenhearted woman. “I don’t understand.”

I don’t either. But this I do know: Jesus’ arms are open on the Cross of Calvary, and He’s saying to you for all He’s worth, “Trust Me. You watch. You wait. You’ll see that out of death will come life.” It’s so great to be a believer, because in every situation, we get to take people to the Cross and say, “Here’s your answer. The love that pinned Jesus to the Cross and the power that resurrected Him from the grave are all you need.”

In this chapter, Jesus gives His final public teaching. And in this final public teaching before His crucifixion, He lets everyone in-Jews and Greeks alike-on the secret of life. “Get a life,” people say. And Jesus tells us how. “Get a life,” He says, “not by asserting yourself, not by pampering yourself, not by changing yourself-but by dying to self.”

For topical study of John 12:21-25 see “The Only Way to See Our Lord”.

The story is told of a prince and his servant traveling through a hostile region who were taken captive by the enemy. After being beaten and thrown into a dungeon, the prince developed a terrible fever, and it looked as though his days were numbered. Semiconscious as he was, however, he didn’t miss the opportunity to alert his servant when their guard fell asleep one day.

“Get his keys and get out of here,” the prince said. “I’m too weak; I can’t make it. But you go. This is your chance.”

“My prince,” answered the servant, “where you are, there I will be. If need be, we’ll both die here together.”

Two weeks later, the prince’s father launched an invasion and freed his imprisoned son in the process.

“Oh, Father,” said the prince immediately upon his return, “even as my servant stayed with me in my danger, suffered with me in my sickness, stood by me in my imprisonment, honor now him.” And the servant was honored throughout the kingdom.

The same is true with you. The Lord knows you could opt to escape, that the Cross and obedience are not always easy. The Lord knows many of you are truly paying a price to follow Him. You’ve been passed by for promotions at work because you’ve stood for integrity. Or you’ve stayed in a relationship because you committed yourself in matrimony.

“Forget it,” the world says. “Here’s a key: Get out. Go on. Be free.”

But you’ve said, “No. My Master, my Prince, my Savior has called me to follow Him. And even when it’s not easy, I will stay by Him.”

I’ve got good news for you who have taken this stand by the Father’s Son, the Prince of Peace. After the invasion, when He brings you safely home to heaven, you will be honored greatly, for the Father honors those who honor His Son.

Thinking about the implications of the Cross troubled Jesus’ soul, but notice what He does in His troubled time: He prays.…

“Father, can I get out? But wait,” says Jesus. “This is why I came.” Haven’t you found that often it is in your own time of prayer, even as you’re expressing your hurt or fear, that you’re reminded of your calling. And everything becomes crystal clear once again.

In complete honesty, Jesus asks, “Can I get out of this, Father? Can You save Me from this hour?”

Did you know you can be totally honest with God? Jesus was.

Jesus didn’t pray, “Glorify My name,” He prayed, “Glorify Thy name.”

This is the third time the voice of the Father thunders from heaven. The first time was at Jesus’ baptism at the beginning of His ministry (Matthew 3:17). The second time was on the Mount of Transfiguration in the middle of His ministry (Matthew 17:5). The third time is here at the end of His ministry as He talks about the Cross. All three of these occasions spoke ultimately of His death. In baptism, Jesus was, in effect, saying, “I submit to the death and burial I know awaits Me.” On the Mount of Transfiguration, Luke tells us He talked with Moses and Elijah about His death (9:31). And here, Jesus struggles with the Cross.

“I never hear from God,” you say. “He never speaks to me.” Here’s the question: Where do you stand in relation to the Cross? Are you dying to self, or are you living for self? The one who dies to self is going to hear the heart and voice of the Father as it resonates within his inner man.

“That’s not really God,” said the crowd. “It’s just thunder.” They didn’t understand. Neither will they understand when you say, “You know, the Father’s really speaking to me.” But just because the crowd mistakes Him for thunder, that won’t negate the truth of what He speaks to your heart.

“That which has damned man, that which has held mankind in bondage-sin-is being judged by My going to the Cross,” Jesus declared.

Because the sin of the world is being judged, the prince of this world is cast out. You see, gang, when you sin, you give Satan a handle to grab. But the good news of the gospel is that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses you from all sin (1 John 1:7). Therefore, because Satan has no more dominion over you, no more toe hold in your life, no more grip on your heart, he is inevitably cast out.

“How come you have so many kids at Applegate Christian Fellowship?” people asked. Or, “How do you reach older folks?” The answer is very simple. The reason there are teenagers, as well as folks in their seventies and eighties, in abundance is because of this verse. Jesus said if the Cross is central, He would draw all men. Truly, the message of the Cross is cross-generational. We don’t have to be hip to reach the kids or conservative to reach the older people because the Cross is the magnet that draws all men to Jesus. Teach the Cross. Share the Cross. Walk in light of the Cross. Revel in its riches and apply it to your life. Share it with your friends however young or old they might be. And watch it draw them to Jesus, just as it drew you.

“What do you mean Messiah is going to die? Our law says He will live forever,” said the Jews. The people didn’t understand the two comings of Christ-that first He came as a Lamb to die for you and me, but that He’s coming again as the Lion of Judah who will rule eternally. Watch, however, what Jesus says in light of their confusion.…

“What does this mean Messiah must die? How does this jive with His eternal reign?” the people wondered. Jesus doesn’t answer their question directly, because you see, He Himself is the Answer.

He answers as if to say, “You guys want to talk about theology, but I want to talk about relationship. While you have Me, link yourselves to Me. Stay close to Me. Enjoy Me.”

Miracles don’t produce faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17). The only path to faith is to be in the Word and to grab hold of the Word.

The word translated “that” would be better translated “consequently.”

Those who would not believe in verse 37 could not believe in verse 39. Since they didn’t want to believe, they weren’t able to believe because God hardened their hearts. Why? To ratify their choice. You see, had not God blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, Jesus’ teachings would have been so powerful, so persuasive, and so overwhelming that they would have believed against their will. The same is true today. To those who don’t want to believe, to those who continually stand in the posture of unbelief, there will come a time when they cannot believe (Matthew 12:31).

When was verse 40 given initially? In Isaiah 6:1. Everyone-including Jehovah Witnesses-agrees that Isaiah 6 concerns Jehovah. But John here says Isaiah spoke of Him, the subject being Jesus, making this a good verse to use in discussions concerning the deity of Christ.

Fearing excommunication and prioritizing the praise of men above the praise of God, although they believed in their heart, many did not name the name of Jesus openly.

“I didn’t come to judge,” says Jesus. “I came to save. But if you don’t believe Me, the Word itself that I have given will condemn and judge you. If you don’t accept the free gift of salvation, My words will condemn you on the last day and will haunt you forever.”

And so Jesus ends His public ministry with the promise that he who embraces His Word would have life everlasting. Finished talking with the crowd, Jesus now huddles His intimate followers together and in the next three chapters, known as the Upper Room discourse, gives them the ultimate lessons, the heaviest and most meaningful teachings, the chalk talk before the kickoff, the last-minute strategy before the invasion.